Startup Weekend San Diego Gives Aspiring Entrepreneurs A Taste of Startup Life

SAN DIEGO, CA — June 18th, 2013. This weekend, San Diego will host its seventh Startup Weekend, an event bringing together entrepreneurs, designers, developers and startup enthusiasts to participate in 54 hours of taking innovative business ideas from concept to launch.

Local CEOs, founders, and startup veterans will be on hand to provide expertise and give talks on their experiences in the fast-paced world of technology startups. Although the event encourages innovation of all kinds, most teams form startups based on web and mobile technologies.

"Startup Weekend will give aspiring entrepreneurs a taste of what it's like to build a startup," said Tim Ryan, lead organizer for the event. "Whether or not teams come out of the experience with a viable startup, everyone will learn about the difficulties of building a startup from scratch."

On Friday night, attendees will pitch their startup ideas to the group in 60 seconds or less. Teams will form from the most popular ideas and the rest of the weekend will be spent creating products and formulating business plans. By Sunday, teams will be ready to present their ideas in front of a panel of judges who will award prizes to teams who give the best demos. Prizes will include hardware from Nokia and Microsoft, office time at local co-working spaces, and legal fees to help with incorporation.

This is the first Startup Weekend San Diego to be held at a major technology corporation in the area, which is a milestone for the organization.

"Nokia's support in the tech community is invaluable and we are excited to be holding our event with a major player in the region," said Ryan.

Around 100 participants are expected to partake over the weekend; additionally, there are limited tickets available to the public for viewing the presentations on Sunday night.

Startup Weekend San Diego runs from Friday, June 21st at 6:00 PM to Sunday, June 23rd at 9:00 PM at Nokia San Diego in Rancho Bernardo, 16620 W Bernardo Drive, San Diego, CA. For more information on the event, as well as tickets to participate or observe, please visit http://sandiego.startupweekend.org.

ABOUT STARTUP WEEKEND: Startup Weekend is a 501c(3)non-profit based in Seattle, Wash. with the mission of inspiring, educating, and empowering individuals, teams, and communities to share ideas, form teams, and launch startups. Founded in 2007 in Boulder, Colo., by Andrew Hyde, the organization has been based out of Seattle since 2009 under the direction of Marc Nager. Startup Weekend is supported by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation, Google for Entrepreneurs, Coca-Cola, and technology sponsors Microsoft, .co, Amazon Web Services, and Domain.com. For information about the San Diego organization, please visit http://sandiego.startupweekend.org or contact community organizer Jennifer Newell at 970-371-0417 or jennifernewell@startupweekend.org.